The marlin, believed to be the largest of the summer-fall season, was caught by Dave Smith of Atlanta, Ga., aboard Attitude Adjustment. The 46-foot yacht books through Pisces Sportfishing.

The catch is sure to pique the interest of big-money anglers entered in the Bisbee's Black & Blue Marlin Tournament, scheduled Oct. 23-27. A marlin of this size could be worth $1 million or more if caught during the competition.

Smith, 58, hooked the marlin on a Zuker lure about 11 miles straight out from Land's End, and his reel was almost spooled by the fleeing billfish.

He's quoted in a Pisces blog post as saying, "This fish came out of nowhere. It almost spooled us but we recovered line; it was a brute--every time we would get it as close as 20 feet, it would take off at full speed and rip off line."

Asked whether he considered releasing the marlin, Smith said the billfish turned sideways and died close to the end of the battle. "I think its heart exploded," the angler said.

Pisces also reports that a 600-pound marlin was caught off the Punta Lobos area a day earlier, by commercial fishermen aboard a panga.

Most billfish are released off Cabo, whenever possible, except during the tournaments, which require the release only of smaller marlin. The Bisbee's event penalizes anglers for bringing in fish weighing less than 300 pounds.

--Pete Thomas

--Image showing Smith with his catch is courtesy of Pisces Sportfishing

Sep 28, 2012

Photographer Chase Jarvis and Mike Horn were fortunate to have enjoyed a rare encounter with a super pod of dolphins recently off South Africa. And marine mammal enthusiasts are bound to appreciate how beautufully their video captures the essence of this spectacular event.

Super pods are formed when several dolphin sub groups gather as one to participate in breeding and feeding activity.

Jarvis and Horn were aboard Horn's 110-foot sailboat, Pangaea, off Cape Town. Suddenly the dolphins began to materialize in the distance.

"At first, on the horizon, we noticed what appeared to be a giant ball of bait fish," Jarvis stated on his blog. "The water boiled for literally a mile in every direction ... only as it approached at the speed of a swift wave did we see first a nose, then another, then a dorsal fin and then a thousand of them, then more.

"Only then did we realize we were experiencing the rare 'super pod' of dolphins. Not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of them — so thick you could have walked across their backs had they been game for it."

Adds Horn in the video: "Even after sailing around the world seven times, 140,000 miles, this was the real first super pod I've seen. We were just standing there and all of us were dumbstruck and all of us, all of a sudden had this massive smile."

The two filmed this spectacle for only a few minutes, from various angles, using different types of cameras.

"After just a few minutes, we all put down our cameras, we stopped talking, and we simply took in the beauty with our eyes," Jarvis continued. "In all of my days as a photographer, there have only been a handful where I’ve been witnessing / particpating in an event like this and simply stopped shooting to take it in. This was one of those moments."

Sep 27, 2012

*Note: Updated at 9 p.m. Thursday with a link that reveals graphic images of Nakai's wound.

Sea World in San Diego has confirmed that an 11-year-old killer whale, named Nakai, suffered a lower jaw injury last week while interacting with other killer whales during a nighttime show.

When asked Thursday to confirm the incident, communications director David Koontz issued a statement saying the injury occurred Sept. 20.

Part of the statement reads: "It is believed Nakai’s injury occurred when he came in contact with a portion of the pool environment. He was quickly treated by park veterinarians. Nakai is currently receiving antibiotics and the veterinarians are pleased with the healing progress of his wound. He is swimming comfortably and interacting with the other killer whales at the Shamu Stadium pool complex."

The severity of Nakai's injury was not addressed in the statement. However, writer Tim Zimmermann on Thursday stated on his website that he had learned that "a dinner plate-size chunk of his lower mandible" had been sheared off during what appeared to have been an altercation between killer whales, or orcas. Zimmerman later posted graphic images showing a very serious wound.

"In response to the altercation, Nakai split to the back pool," Zimmermann wrote. "The onstage trainers, not realizing how badly injured he was, continued the show with the other whales. It was only when they called Nakai over later that night that they realized he was seriously hurt."

Koontz did not reply when asked, via email, to confirm the accuracy of Zimmermann's post.

Nakai was the first captive orca conceived and successfully born through artificial insemination. At 11, he's at the age when orcas enter puberty.

Palm Springs angler John Sato caught a 75-pound roosterfish out of Cabo San Lucas on Thursday morning, while fishing along the shoreline with Capt. Ivan aboard the panga Gloria.

Roosterfish are not considered good-eating and most anglers release them, but this giant specimen appears to have been kept for a photo opportunity, and perhaps for food.

Pisces Sportfishing's Mario Bañaga answered Ivan's request to come down with his camera and a brief story and two photos are posted on the Pisces blog.

The blog post states: "Captain Ivan got an early start, despite the rain aboard his 22 ft panga 'Gloria' with angler John Sato from Palm Springs, Ca. [Sato] hooked up this beauty just fifteen feet from shore, on a live caballito at Cerros de Arena. John took 40 minutes to subdue this huge rooster on a Shimano TLD 15 spooled withe 30 lb test line. The fish weighed 75 lbs."

It's among the largest roosterfish caught in years off Baja California Sur, but still pales to the all-tackle world record 114-pound specimen that was landed in 1960 in the Sea of Cortez near La Paz.

In support of the California Department of Fish and Game
and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas
Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's
weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:

Question: I recently shot a doe with my A31 tag in Los Angeles County (Archery Only-Either Sex). It appeared to be a lethal shot from 22 yards with decent shot placement. I tracked the blood to a privately owned ranch 100 yards away. I stopped tracking it when it appeared she went onto the ranch property. I then approached the ranch manager to get permission to continue tracking my deer. The owner initially agreed but after one of her coworkers talked to her, she retracted her permission (approximately 10 minutes from the time we spoke in her office). She requested that we leave her property at once as she didn’t want people to think they approved of hunting. I didn’t have enough time to locate my deer and left broken-hearted.

I don’t like seeing animals die or suffer for no reason. I would never have shot if I would have known I couldn’t recover her. I believe I did everything legal and correct but it shouldn’t be right that a deer goes to waste because of the bias of a property manager.

Is there anything I could have done to recover my deer? Do I have any rights or is there anyone I could have contacted? I’m still sick over the situation. (Luke G., Loma Linda)

Answer: It’s unfortunate that this happened. Although the law prevents one from wasting the deer, the law does not permit the trespass to retrieve it. Perhaps, if you’d contacted the local game warden, they may have been able to contact the ranch manager or owner for some possible assistance to prevent the deer from going to waste.

According to Department of Fish and Game Lt. Todd Tognazzini, when archery hunting it is recommended to hunt farther from private property boundaries to avoid this type of problem as deer taken with archery usually travel farther after a lethal wound than those shot with a rifle. Tognazzini says he has never been refused when a fresh and legitimate blood trail is found leaving public land onto private property.

Q: I recently noticed an advertisement in the seafood section of our local Los Angeles Hong Kong supermarket newspaper where they are selling "Live Mouth Bass." Is there really such a fish? The picture looks like they are largemouth bass. I didn’t think our precious game fish could be sold for food. If these are largemouth bass, is it legal to sell them in the market? (Doc H., Walnut)

Imagine standing waist-deep in water, posing for a photo while stingrays teem beneath the surface, when suddenly something very large and clammy becomes draped around your shoulders.

How would you react?

Probably like the three women in the accompanying image, whose expression changed from joyful smiles to collective horror after a man, whose head is barely visible in the photo, lifted and placed a large stingray onto their backs for a "photobomb" prank that has gone viral.

The image, source unknown, reportedly was captured at a Cayman Islands tourist spot known as Stingray City, where swimmers can feed the stingrays pieces of squid.

Stingray City Trips states on its website: "The Stingray City Sandbar is a fun place and is suitable for everyone. You may be surrounded by more than two dozen 'tame' Atlantic Southern Stingrays that enjoy the company of humans."

Yes, the stingrays are tame. It's the human jokers you have to watch out for.

Sep 26, 2012

British Columbia's Fraser River, within a span of eight weeks, has produced two white sturgeon weighing an estimated 1,000 pounds or more, the latest by a team of accountants on a team-building adventure.

The first catch, measuring 12 feet, 4 inches and estimated to weigh 1,100 pounds, was on July 20 after a 90-minute struggle. The latest, at 11-8 and 1,000 pounds, was on Sept. 21, after a 50-minute fight.

Crunching the numbers, that's more than 1 ton of of prehistoric-looking river monsters, most likely with a combined age of 250 years or more.

In a guide service press release Norman Daley, owner of the accounting firm and credited with hooking the behemoth, said: "In the first few minutes I had it on the line I thought my arms were going to fall off, or I would end up in the river."

Other employees were passed the rod so they could experience the catch, also. Daley added: "There was no way that one person alone was going to get that fish to the boat. It was truly a team effort."

An alligator weighing 697.5 pounds is now out of the water and into the Mississippi state record book. Hunter Tom Grant of Boyle, Miss., caught the massive gator on a private hunting club near Fitler in Issaquena County.

"When we snagged the alligator with two rod and reel
snatch hooks, we knew he was big, we just didn’t know he would be this
big," said Grant. "It was an hour and a half of pure tug of war and chaos before we
finally had him restrained."

"This is not
the first record to come from Issaquena County and probably will not be the
last," said MDWFP Alligator Program Coordinator Ricky Flynt. "The lower Delta region of the state is home to some very remote
and abundant habitat that has harbored large alligators for thousands of
years."

Grant’s alligator was officially measured at 13 feet, 1-1/2 inches long -- which did not surpass the current record of 13 feet 6-1/2 inches -- with a belly girth of 65 inches and a tail girth of 45 inches.

“The recovery of the American alligator in
Mississippi from an endangered species to a population that now has
reached levels to sustain limited hunting status is a true wildlife
conservation success story," added Flynt.

Sep 24, 2012

The search for six missing climbers in the aftermath of Sunday's deadly avalanche on the Nepalese peak of Manaslu has been called off. The bodies of nine climbers were recovered and several injured climbers were treated for injuries and hypothermia.

One of the lucky survivors was Glen Plake, an iconic freeskier from Lake Tahoe. Two of Plake's ski-mountaineering companions, Greg Costa and Remy Lecluse, are among the missing on the 26,759-foot peak.

Plake, who had been sharing a tent with Costa, also described being swept 900 feet down the mountain in the predawn darkness, in his sleeping bag, as the massive slide tore through Camp 3 at about 20,000 feet, destroying as many as 25 tents.

"We all went to sleep with avalanche transceivers on so I punched my way out of the tent and started searching," Plake said. "I searched for 10 minutes before I realized I was barefoot in the snow.

"Greg had been using my down suit for a pillow and I found my suit, I found everything that was in my tent – camera, sleeping bag, ski boots. It was like someone had thrown my gear in the back of a pickup – but there was no sign of Greg. Remy and his tent are nowhere to be found."

The slide, estimated to measure up to 2,000 feet across, also slammed tents farther down the slope at Camp 2. One of the Camp 2 survivors is Canada's Greg Hill, who in 2010 set a record for climbing and skiing 2 million vertical feet in one calendar year.

Some of the Camp 2 climbers assisted in a Sunday search that became impossible after heavy fog swept over the slope. The search was called off a day later, after it became clear there was no hope of finding any more survivors.

Reports vary but at least 29 people were on the mountain at the time of the avalanche, which Plake estimated to measure about 2,000 feet across.

Eight of the nine climbers who were killed have been identified. Four are French, one is Italian, one Spanish, one German, and one is a Nepali national.

Manaslu, the world's eighth tallest peak, is among the most dangerous to climb, having claimed the lives of dozens of mountaineers in recent years.